AIFBD Meetings in Montreal

A Librarians’ Ouverture to Francophonie
by Dominique Coulombe (Dominique_Coulombe@brown.edu)

Organizers of the first AIFBD Congress in Montreal, with AIFBD president Réjean Savard second from right

Depending on the context in which it is being used, the French word ouverture conveys an idea of openness, beginning, or an harmonious opening to a musical composition. This word summarizes the propitious debut of the AIFBD (Association internationale francophone des bibliothécaires et documentalistes) held Aug. 5 – 8 in Montréal. This satellite meeting of IFLA gave the opportunity to 250 librarians from 60 francophone countries to exchange ideas, share their expertise, and network in the language they have in common. Of significance to the community of the Center for Research Libraries' Global Resources Network was also the first annual meeting of the Initiative de collaboration entre les bibliothèques françaises et nord-américaines (ICBFN)/Collaborative Initiative for French and North-American Libraries (CIFNAL) which was held as a professional meeting in that venue.

Over the course of two and a half days, invited AIFBD participants presented papers that were organized thematically into 22 sessions. I had the privilege to moderate one of the sessions which was entitled Grandes bibliothèques: rôles et usages, which focused on the role, challenges and latest innovations in the development of services in three large libraries on Africa, Canada and Switzerland. The main focus of the three presentations was the provision of quality and up-to-date service to 21st century users.

Jean-Philippe Accart, Service information au public, Bibliothèque nationale Suisse, talked about SwissInfoDesk, a virtual reference desk which offers a suite of research assistance services and a guide to 2500 carefully selected links which are organized thematically. The virtual reference desk builds on the expertise of about 20 libraries in Switzerland which, upon signature of a collective agreement, have agreed to participate in this service. SwissInfoDesk enables the promotion of collections that are less known to the public and distribution of the reference workload to experts throughout the country. An important feature of this SwissInfoDesk is the availability of the site and services in English, French, German or Italian, a concern which reflects the diversity of languages used in Switzerland and other European countries. Users gain access to a wide network of librarians and resources through a single interface. For librarians in North America, SwissInfoDesk is also a great resource for Swiss and European culture and history.

During the second presentation, Carole Urbain, Bibliothèque sciences humaines, gestion et droit, and Louise O’Neill, services technologiques de la Bibliothèque, McGill University, examined the behaviors and activities of students of the Millennial generation, describing innovative services tailored to the profile of these students. The library is aggressively pursuing the addition of electronic periodicals, backfiles, and books to its collections. A process for the submission of, and access to, electronic theses and articles has been developed. Spaces are being renovated to create quiet as well as group study areas for students, who place a high value on their social network. Consistent incorporation of Web 2.0 technology into dynamic services that are attractive to users who have grown up with the Internet is actively pursued. A library orientation session is available on Facebook and a similar experiment is currently being conducted on Second Life.

The third presentation by Amadou Anta Samb, Chef du Service des relations publiques, the Bibliothèque centrale of the Université Cheikh Anta Diop in Dakar, Sénégal, described the challenges faced by the University Library, the strategies developed to overcome the budgetary difficulties, and the changes introduced to maintain high quality services. Unlike most libraries in African countries, this academic library benefits from a robust online catalog and Internet services. However, it is facing insufficient physical capacity and is suffering from budgetary difficulties to the point where it has cut down on new acquisitions and subscription renewals, currently purchasing 0.045 titles per student per year. To compensate for the deficiencies in the collection budget, the library has focused on improving the services to online resources, entered into cooperative agreements with African and international counterparts, undertaken the renovation of Internet spaces dedicated to classrooms and study, implemented WiFi, introduced a system for the submission of, and access to, electronic theses, and developed new partnerships with non-academic entities that bring in new revenues.

Overall, the session illustrated the diversity of francophone libraries and, beyond that, the success of resourceful francophone librarians in collaborating as well as in exploring and implementing technological advances to meet the needs of users. Whether we work in Africa, Europe or North America, we offer the same dedication and passion to fulfilling our library missions. This same observation was also very apparent during the visits of to academic libraries at the end of the Congress.

These included the Ecole des hautes études commerciales (HEC) Montréal, the Université de Montréal and the Ecole polytechnique de Montréal. As in every place which hosted AIFBD participants, we were greeted warmly by our colleagues in these three libraries.

The Bibliothèque Myriam et J. Robert Ouimet of the Ecole des hautes études is very proud of its library design, which occupies the second floor of the main building located on top of the Colline Sainte-Catherine. The goal of creating an environment conducive to learning and research permeates the physical design of the physical building, offering excellent resources for the study and research of management and entrepreneurship. The physical layout has preserved views to the gardens through floor-to-ceiling windows which offer natural light to the users. State of the art video streaming adds to the business resources, along with 150 databases, 53,000 periodical titles, and 30,000 ebooks .

Another innovative building with a beautiful design is the library of the Ecole polytechnique de Montréal located on Mount Royal. The Library occupies the 7th and 8th floors of the Ecole’s building and is an excellent example of an engineering library which incorporates state of the art technology and new models of learning and studying. The environmentally friendly design of the Ecole has won the first prize in the "Technological Merit and Innovation" category in the 2004 AGPI (Association des gestionnaires de parcs immobiliers institutionnels) competition. The library’s vision first concerned itself with creating comfortable and modular study spaces. This translated into the creation of 13 group work rooms, 191 individual study carrels, 173 work group spaces, 27 "counter" places, one training laboratory and one multifunctional room. The "green building" ergonomic considerations were a requirement, and this high priority is clearly visible in the use of building materials such as straw panels and water-based glue. New furniture designs were submitted and contributed by students. Color coding for each floor of the building represents elements of the earth. The top floors of the building occupied by the library are painted respectively in green for the grass and in blue color for the sky.

The visit to the Rare Books and Special Collections of the Université de Montréal was another highlight of the ½ day tour. Among the treasures featured by this library are illuminated medieval manuscripts, original works of Cocteau signed by the author, and a sizeable collection of Canadiana –- the Louis-Melzack and Georges-Baby collections -- with 1,500 manuscripts and 4,000 monographs, in addition to 18th and 19th century periodicals.

The meetings, professional sessions and tours contributed to the development of new ideas, and the evolution of existing projects. New friendships were formed across continents. The 1st AIFBD Congress was indeed a grand ouverture for all participants.

--Dominique Coulombe

Brown University Library